Middle School Journalism Online Single Semester
Who? What? When? Where? Journalism provides us with the answers to these questions for the events that affect our lives. In this course, students will learn how to gather information, organize ideas, format stories for different forms of news media, and edit their stories for publication. The course will also examine the historical development of journalism and the role of journalism in society.
Unit 1: What is Journalism?
· Print Journalism
· Internet Journalism
· The Types of News Journalists Cover
· Key Roles in Journalism
Unit 2: Analyzing Media
· Being Newsworthy
· Audience
· Fact versus Opinion
· Analyzing a News Story
Unit 3: Gathering Information
· Gathering Information Introduction
· Types of Sources
· Getting the Best Sources
· How Journalists get their Information
· Asking Questions
Unit 4: Organizing Information
· Types of News Stories
· Determining What's Important
· Organizational Techniques
· Hourglass Style
Unit 5: Writing an Article
· Writing an Article
· Organizing an Article
· Writing a Headline
· Writing the Actual Article
· Revising an Article
Unit 6: Preparing a Newscast
· Parts of a Newscast
· Preparing a Story for the News
· Adding Graphics
· Writing a Script
Unit 7: Editing an Article or Newscast
· Editing a Newspaper
· Macro and Micro Editing
· Editing a News Segment
· Common Mistakes
Unit 8: Media, the Law and Ethics
· Journalism and the First Amendment
· Journalism and the Law
· Journalism and Ethics
· Objectivity
Unit 9: Media and Society
· Media and Society
· Yellow Journalism and Staying on Top
· Presenting Multiple Perspectives
· The Internet and Journalism
Unit 10: A History of Journalism
· The History of the Newspaper
· The History of Broadcast Journalism
· Radio
· Women in Journalism
· African-Americans in Journalism